Pontifical university announces it will not accept directives from apostolic visitor

A legal representative for the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Martin Mejorada has stated that the institution will not accept any instruction from the Vatican-appointed apostolic visitor.

The Vatican sent Cardinal Peter Erdo to the university in order to bring it in line with the Church's norms governing Catholic universities.

According to the newspaper La Republica, Mejorada said on Oct. 24, “(i)n no way will we accept any imposition made by Cardinal Erdo. We are governed solely by Peruvian law.”

He added that Cardinal Erdo is seen by university administrators as mediator in order to facilitate a resolution to the conflict with the Archdiocese of Lima, which seeks to have a voice on the university’s board of directors.

Earlier this month, Father Luis Gaspar, head of the archdiocesan tribunal said Pope Benedict XVI only names an apostolic visitor “when the Church considers the institution in question to be one of her own assets. Rome sees the (school) as a university of the Church.”

“When a cardinal apostolic visitor is named, the Holy Father has decided to directly intervene in the (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru)... It is a last resort to keep PCUP from separating from the Church,” he said.

Fr. Gaspar told the newspaper El Comercio that if the university does not follow the Church’s directives for Catholic universities in the apostolic constitution, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” it could lose its status as a pontifical and Catholic institution, with “all of the consequences” that this entails.

He noted that Jose Riva-Aguero, who donated the land on which the university is built, stipulated in his will that if the university were to be dissolved, its assets would belong to the Archdiocese of Lima, “so they could be used for education.”